A variety of organopolysiloxanes such as dimethylpolysiloxane, epoxy group-containing polysiloxanes and aminoalkyl group-containing polysiloxanes are widely used as treatments for conferring properties such as softness and smoothness to various types of textile fibers and products. Of these, frequent use is made of aminoalkyl group-containing organopolysiloxanes, which are able to impart an especially good softness to a variety of textile fibers and products. In particular, textile treatments in which the main ingredient is an organopolysiloxane having aminoalkyl groups such as —C3H6NH2 or —C3H6NHCH2CH2NH2 (see, for example, JP-B S48-1480, JP-B S54-43614, JP-B S57-43673, JP-A S60-185879, JP-A S60-185880 and JP-A S64-61576) exhibit excellent softening properties and are thus widely used.
In recent years, there has been a growing need for enhanced functionality in apparel. Hence, in the field of textile treatment, in order to impart fibers with various functions, functional finishes such as deodorizers, antimicrobial agents, disperse pigments and disperse dyes are applied onto the fibers using resin binders. For example, in JP-A H07-279053, improvements in preventing silk fibroin powder loss and in adhesion to fibers are carried out with textile treatments obtained by adding silk fibroin to a resin emulsion of polyurethane resin, polyester resin, acrylic resin or the like. JP-A H07-41733 discloses a powdered natural product-containing surface treatment which, by applying a powdered natural product and a urea-aldehyde resin powder or the like to a substrate with a synthetic resin binder such as urethane resin, acrylic resin or polyester resin, imparts qualities similar to the natural product and suppresses the generation of unpleasant odors during coating.
In order to retain for a long time such functions of softness and water absorbency possessed by the textile treatment itself, and the functions exhibited by various finishes, such as deodorizing and antimicrobial functions, it is necessary for the various treatments and functional finishes to continue adhering to the fibers even when washing is repeatedly carried out. Hence, textile treatments and resin binders are required to have a high durability to washing.
Prior-art documents relating to this invention include those cited below.